Thursday, March 9, 2023

United Million MIler Frame

いまさら感がハンパありませんが… 

ユナイテッド航空から、3ミリオンマイラー達成記念のフレームが送られてきました…。
こっち側が表なのかな…。

2ミリオン達成の時にも全く同じアクリル製フレームでしたが、この面はありませんでした。

アテネに出かける直前の2月末日に届いたのは、こんな箱。反対面は宛名が貼ってあるので割愛。
ミリオンマイラーって書いてあるだけ。

中味がなんだか全く不明で、少しだけ期待して…やっぱり損しました。
ユナイテッド航空から届くもので期待を超えて嬉しかったことは…(思い切り遠い目)

中に入っていたカードは、こんなです。(変臭が面倒だから Dear ***** は省略)
本当にものすげー記録で、選ばれた会員なのよ♪ みたいな美辞麗句が並んでいますが…

While we couldn't send you this commemorative frame when you reached in 2021 due to the pandemic,
2021 年にパンデミックが発生したため、この記念フレームをお送りすることはできませんでしたが、

・・・キマした!

 何でもパンデミックのせいにするの法則です!!
これで新型コロナが本当に収まったら、もう言い逃れする絶好の口実が無くなります。

鶴丸もネットで切符が買えなくなったトラブルをパンデミックのせいにするかも?wwwww草生えすぎwwwww

 it's never too late to recognize an extraordinary accomplishment like this one.
このような並外れた成果を認識するのに遅すぎることはありません。

いや… 遅いと思う(ここ書いててなんかムカついてきた。(笑))

今はもう 2023 年だよ。スタッフ首切りすぎてこういうのの発送業務まで出来なかったのかよ?

フレームの反対側は、こんなでした…。
2ミリオン達成の時は、このフレームと一緒にケイト・スペードのクラッチバッグをもらいました。
3ミリオン達成の時は… 35,000 マイルもらって、そんだけです。

ユナイテッド航空に大安売りで魂を売ってしまって、プチ後悔しています。

でも昨日エアフラで帰って来て、デルタの SkyPesos とマヂラブにならなくて本当に良かったと思いました。
スカイチーム、かなり終わってます。スタアラのほうが SQ, TK, そして ANA と、粒ぞろいで勝ち組です。

え? ワンワールド?? 何それ? 食べたら美味しいもの?wwwww草生えすぎwwwww

もうユナイテッド縛りはほどけましたが、今後もデルタの陸マイルが貯まる以外は引き続きスタアラ縛りです。

  §

 コメント欄にてヤマダ電機先生とのコメント交換で既に書いていますが…

 ・iPhone 14 Pro をアテネでなくしました
  従いまして、往路の KLM ビジネスクラスの写真記録とか、みんな無くなりました。(号泣)
  多分バクラヴァ屋のテーブルあたりに置き忘れたんですが…『紛失』だと警察が真摯に向き合ってくれないと思い、メトロの車輌で『盗難』されたことにしました。…あ、マヂすられた可能性だってあるので、狂言ではありませんから、念のため。
  でも結局アテネのお巡りさんは真摯に向き合ってくれませんでした。仕事したくないムード全開の兄さんが、盗難証明だけ作ってくれました。Find My 機能でどこにあるか追跡できてるけど、ヤバすぎる地区にあるから捜索しない独りで行くのもダメ!ゼッタイ!!…だって。
  国会議事堂裏にある警察署に行きつくまでに、アクロポリ駅長 → シンタグマ駅長 → 観光警察の交番 → 議事堂裏署、というたらい回しに遭いました。誰も仕事したくないし、責任を負いたくありません。
  上写真はシンタグマ広場。デモの翌日。奥に見えるのが国会議事堂。
  しかもシンタグマ駅を上がったら… 大列車事故のために市民がデモやらかしてて、目がシパシパする。薄まっていたけど、生まれて初めて催涙ガスを浴びました。聞けば…ギリシャの鉄道会社は賃上げでしょっちゅうストライキするけど、安全性の欠陥を理由にストライキした事は今までに一度も無いそうです。ギリシア共和国の交通システムは、安全は最優先事項ではないのです。アテネの先生まで「腐ったイタリアの鐵道を導入したから」って、いくらギリシアより腐敗が酷いとはいえ、人のせいにしています。まぁ職業柄、人のせいにするのが商売でしょうが…。
  この一件、列車事故、etc…公共サービスが腐敗しきっているのを体験し、かなりアテネが嫌いになりました。
  なお、新しい iPhone 14 Pro を昨日既に入手し、撮った写真を紛失した以外はほぼ元通りです。
  善は急げ。私の好きな言葉です
  せっかくなので、バックアップでもう一台全く同じ iPhone を購入しておきました。
  備えあれば憂い無し。私の好きな言葉です
  儂の iPhone を拾ってバックレた香具師、リモートで既に消去済みなうえに二度と起動しないし、米国バージョンなので SIM カードさえ差し込めません。ぬか喜びザマミロ。←負け猫の遠吠え

 ・右足を痛めました
  昨日のパリ、シャルルドゴール空港での乗り換えで、空港係員の支離滅裂な指示で前後の乗客に押され、以前から調子の悪かった右足裏の母指外転筋(変な名前の筋。死海文書外伝みたい)あたりを激しく痛めました。
  捲土重来… 私の苦手な言葉です
  上写真はシャルルドゴール空港、T2F → T2E L/M ゲート間の無駄に遠回りな連絡橋。
  SFO 到着後に速攻でかかりつけ医の先生にレントゲン線で撮影診断していただきましたが、骨は大丈夫だそうです。でも、市販の痛み止めで治るのを待てと放置プレーかまされたので、第一三共のロキソニン 100mg 入り湿布+アメリカの気持ちイイほど痛みが収まるヤバい薬(違法な奴ではない)をキメて、なんとか凌いでいます。
  今朝ずいぶん痛みが引いたと感じて、軽くビッコひきながらランチと買い物に出かけたら… まだ 3,000 歩くらいしか歩いてないのに、帰るのどうしよう!?くらい痛くなってきて大変。ほとんどいざるように帰ってきました。もうあとこの数日はヤバい薬をキメまくってがんばるつもりです。電話応対がラリラリだったらごめんなさいです。

 しかし… こういう儂の不幸を書くとページビューが露骨に増えるんだよね。
 人の不幸は蜜の味… 私の苦手な言葉です ←最近はメフィラスにハマってる

 来週は日本。さすがにヤバい薬を持っていけないので、右足は早く治します。
 出入国在留管理庁の方、もしこれ読んでてもヤバイものはゼッタイに持ち込みませんから安心するざます。

  §
  閑話休題。私の好きな言葉です

という事で、来週から10日間ほど帰省するつもり。
お目にかかる予定の皆様、よろしくお願いします。
もちろんコメ変もメッチャ遅れます。ご了承の程。

23 comments:

  1. First of all, congratulations on achieving three million miles with United Airlines! As someone who hasn't traveled overseas in nearly 15 years, even three million miles seems incredible to me, but I'm sure there are those who have flown even more. In America, where there are frequent flyers who spend every day sleeping on planes, who knows what the highest record is.

    You have no idea what was in the items you received, but I imagine I may have had a similar feeling of disappointment caused by items from Centurion lately and ended up feeling like I was let down. As for things I've received from AmEx that exceeded my expectations, I can't seem to remember any at the moment.

    To me, achieving three million miles is a truly impressive feat, regardless of whether or not you were selected as a special member (lol). It's a testament to how much you've contributed to United, much like my BMW is a marker of how much I've supported them.

    Certainly, it's common for people in all industries to blame everything on the pandemic. In an email I received from JAL, they mentioned that "we have been experiencing almost constant connectivity issues on our website since the start of our JAL Smile Campaign domestic ticket time sale, and we sincerely apologize. (Omitted) Unfortunately, we will also have to cancel the sale of tickets for June travel dates, in addition to those for April and May travel dates." They didn't seem to blame the pandemic for everything, at least not in this case (lol).

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    1. Yamada Denki sensei,

      Thank you for your kind words. Well… the most flying passenger on UA is Mr. Tom Stucker who flew over 23 million miles, and actually he is world’s most frequent flyer. I think he fortunately bought “lifetime tickets” by ex-United and keep on going. Considering that, I’m a slow starter… if I can accumulate my NWA WorldPerks miles and award flights, I may be able to achieve almost 5 million miles.

      When I received that purple colored box, it may be the 1K® tag for 2023 which is not arrived yet. But the package says Million Miler instead of 1K, so I am pretty much confused. The unexpected black card arrival must be much more exciting and shocking, I guess. These days, I lost such kind excitements by United anymore… *sigh*

      Sensei, you should kick BMW’s ass to give you a kind of award trophy for your loyalty to loving kidneys. Or you may switch to urologist then Kurobuta-san is a perfect match for you.

      I think the IT guys at JAL are not well prepared for the raise of access by Smile Campaign, or the marketing/sales teams didn’t notify any expectations of increased traffic. Japanese companies saw the website of Sharp dropped by the high traffic when they started selling face masks, so JAL didn’t lean anything from others' failure.

      Delete
  2. I'm not entirely sure if United cutting staff too aggressively is the reason why the delivery of such important commemorative items has been delayed. Have the employees who were previously let go been rehired by United?

    I know that you've sold your soul to United Airlines, but even so, isn't it good that they're giving out gifts like this? You're already lifetime 1K, so you're no longer bound to United, right? Isn't that the biggest benefit? In case of me, have they ever given me any commemorative items before, for who've purchased six BMWs from them without cheating on them with another brand? Oh, now that I think about it, they did once give me a ride on a blimp in Hiroshima. (lol) But that's just all about it.

    As I've already heard from you, you lost your iPhone 14 Pro in Athens, and the possibility of theft was low. The police officers in Athens didn't seem to take your misfortune seriously. If this happened in Japan, they would have created a theft report and even used the Find My function to track down the phone's location. In recent internet news, there was a case where a person who owned a luxury car had a GPS device installed inside his vehicle beforehand, and after the car was stolen, they brought the data to the police, who used it to quickly catch the culprit. It's a good thing I live in Japan.

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    1. Yamada Denki sensei,

      In the States, we call it “lay-off,” even it’s actually firing employees… United didn’t layoff so may corporate stuff, I believe, but there is no excuse it delays more than a year though novel coronavirus makes everything uncertain. I kept flying under those infections were here and there in the airport terminals to the aircrafts.

      I don’t have to achieve every year’s qualification to be 1K® anymore, but because United is the key air carrier to treat me the best, my bookings are thru United – as a result, vast majority of my flights are Star Alliance operated ones.
      Ride above Hiroshima would be very nice if BMW offers it. Similar experience I has was hot-air balloon ride by Nokia in Austria. Those excursions are quite fun especially if it’s free. (lol)

      I was so disappointed by Greek public services… they are very corrupted and ugly. All officers are pursuing higher salaries, not suspects. All train operators are looking for better salaries, not working for safety. Basic mind-settings are pretty much corrupted and this is why they went bankruptcy.
      I’d rather frequently visit Istanbul from now on because they are very nice and helpful to Japanese, at least. But I would like to see the next president in May – whether Mr. Erdoğan will be chosen again, or Mr. Kılıçdaroğlu of CHP changes the administration. (Lesson: in American English, Administration is a positive word and Regime is negative. ex. French Administration and Iranian Regime)

      Delete
  3. Google Photo appを入れておけば写真は常に雲に上がるので無くならないっすよ。

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    1. m e m o さん、

      クラウドは他社製に頼らずとも iCloud で簡単に実現できますし、既に 50 GB 持ってますが…

       ・米国内は無制限データトラフィックでも、ギリシアでは5GBしか買いませんでした。
       ・ギリシアでは5G接続できましたが、実測値は上り 1Mbps 出ません。
       ・クラウドは時として馬鹿発見器になる危険を伴うため、個人的には積極利用しません。
       ・現行のクラウドサービスはあまり信用していません。

      以上の理由、特に通信速度とデータ量の問題から撮影即クラウド保存はしませんでした。
      米国にいる時でもクラウドに挙げるのをデフォにはしていません。
      以上は情報システム部・モバイル事業部に勤務していた物としての「学び」です。

      ブログ記事に出来ずとも、思い出として残ればいいです。以前ロンドンへ頻繁に出張した時代、あえて写真記録はせず思い出に頼りましたが、美化されるのでかえっていいかも。

      Delete
  4. It's a sad thing that a major train accident occurred in Greece, but why did it lead to citizen protests? Is it because the people's frustration has been building up and it just exploded with this incident as a trigger? Nevertheless, it's a painful sight to see the police using tear gas against their own citizens.

    The Greek railway repeatedly raises fares and frequently goes on strike, which is reminiscent of former Japan National Railways. I was a train enthusiast at the time and often watched trains passing by. As a child, the most curious thing was that a conductor's car was always attached to the end of the freight train. I once secretly spied on what the conductor was doing in there, but all I ever saw were scenes of them lazily smoking or getting lost in manga without doing anything in particular. At that time, the National Railways had about 400,000 employees, and all of them were civil servants, so the burden on the government was huge. I think the privatization of the National Railways was inevitable. The same can be said for the former Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. Of course, I strongly support the idea that “all professions are equal,” but I was amazed when I found out that one of our patients who had only worked as a mail carrier had retired and received an astonishing amount of retirement pay as a civil servant. At the time, Prime Minister Koizumi, who repeatedly implemented policies that neglected those of us involved in the medical field, forced the privatization of the postal service. I supported him only on that matter.

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    1. Yamada Denki sensei,

      Greek citizens are always being frustrated because the government is quite corrupted, and things never going well, they keep accumulating their frustration… and if something, like this train tragedy happens, all of those frustrations came out and physically fighting with public services – in this case, policemen. Furthermore, about quarter of population are the public servants. Everybody is looking for the best way to receive money without spending any burden… Corrupted, period.

      Also the structure of Greek railways are so complicated… the rails are public properties, and the operation is by personal organization, then the trains are imported from Italy with humungous amount of deficits, therefore the government can’t schedule sufficient amounts of budgets for the safety of train services, security systems were down since 2000 and left as is, operation is manually driven. Under such situations, this train service is simply waiting for a unrecoverable tragedy.

      As you are the Train Nerd and you explained, Japan National Railways was also well corrupted but at least they are taking care of safety. Japanese citizens are not that stupid and kept the first priority is safety.

      Delete
  5. You have reported that a lawyer in Athens is blaming Italy's corrupt public service for the many flaws in Greece's own public railway system. Well, it's true that as a lawyer, it may be their job to blame others, but come to think of it, doctors may be the same. There may be a tendency to secretly think that "the patient's illness is due to their unhealthy lifestyle, and it's the doctor's job to somehow raise it to an average level."

    "Strike the iron while it is hot" and "let's get back to the topic" seem to be your favorite phrases (lol). I agree with "be prepared and you'll have no worries," but did you really buy another iPhone exactly the same as a backup!? I would love to hear your opinion on this, Shonan senpai (lol). Oh, "the howling of a defeated dog (or cat?)" is also one of your favorite phrases (lol). But "rise from the ashes" and "other people's misfortunes are a source of pleasure" are not your cup of tea (LOL).

    I heard that you will be returning to Japan for about 10 days from next week. Unfortunately, I won't be able to meet you this time, but I'm sure your senpai will tell me all about it. And please don't feel obliged to reply to my content-less comments.

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    Replies
    1. Yamada Denki sensei,

      Again… as per I mentioned above, a quarter of Greek population is working for public services. And what I heard from the Attorney of Athens was incredible. When they got critical of bankruptcy in 2009, that was the first time the government requested Greek citizens if they are in charge of public services. This means, the government didn’t know how many people are working under public jobs… isn’t this amazing?

      For the medical doctors, I am so sorry for doctors in Soviet Union. I don’t know the situation now but they were learning hard, trained hard and working hard for someone’s health, but the salary is no significant difference to taxi drivers, I heard. All professions are equally treated but it’s unfair. A talented person with spending certain endeavor must be awarded well. I personally wanted to find a backdoor to find a reasonable income with least burden, I think I am somehow somewhat successful at this point of view. :P

      Those Japanese sayings are on the movie named New Ultraman. I can confess my real favorite one is “Someone’s misfortune tastes like honey.” I frequently use this direct translation and it works very well to everyone who speaks English.

      My ‘backup’ iPhone 14 Pro in Deep Purple has just arrived this afternoon. But I am still considering this one to be my real backup, or keep SE2 as-is then this one can be gifted to someone else. I offered this iPhone to my precog sister, but she already used her future telling power then she got upgraded her phone to iPhone 14 in December… I owe her a lot but I can’t pay back anything.

      I’m sorry I can’t make seeing you, but will do in late May. So please stay tuned – actually you do well. (lol)
      (Quick lesson: ‘Meet’ is being used for the first time encounter, after that, ‘See’ is being used. ex: Nice to meet you. Good to see you again.)

      Delete
  6. The most frequent flyer on United has flown over 23 million miles!? If that's true, it should be in the Guinness Book of World Records, right? Or maybe there are even higher flyers on other airlines? In any case, it's an amazing feat. I wonder what percentage of their life they spend on planes? Also, did ex-United really sell "lifetime tickets"? I can't even imagine how much they would have cost. Dreaming about it makes me feel like I'm living in a completely different world.

    If you had become a United customer earlier instead of accumulating NWA WorldPerks miles, you probably could have reached 5 million miles by now. I wonder what kind of luxurious gift you would receive for achieving that milestone. Or maybe United is stingy and it's not that different from the 3 million mile gift? (lol)

    The urologist who went to the same middle school as Doi-sensei and whom I mentioned in my comment earlier... Hahaha, he used to drive a BMW. Oh, but come to think of it, the area covered by urologists is the ureter, bladder, and urethra, while the kidney is in the domain of internal medicine doctors like me. But of course, urologists perform surgical treatments as needed for the kidneys as well. BMW, the car brand loved by both internal medicine and urologists, a happy automobile brand. (lol)

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    1. Yamada Denki sensei,

      Mr. Tom Stucker is on the Guinness book as the most flown guy on the commercial flights, I think. He is the highest miles flyer in any air carriers. But my concern is his exposure level of natural radioactive electromagnetic waves. If you fly from Tokyo to New York, it will be the same amount of radiation exposure by CT scan for entire body… scarily?
      Former United Airline had “lifetime” tickets as well as lounge access which I really envy, but even if it’s available right now, I wouldn’t be able to buy it because of the price…

      If I would achieve 4MM Flyer, I will be Lifetime Global Services member! I tried to negotiate with my better-half-san about it, the answer is always ”No” therefore I have to accumulate one more million mile step by step… probably I can’t reach there within my rest of lifetime.

      A urologist drives kidney grilled car?? That is beyond hilarious… but kidneys are not his territory but rather yours? In that case, if I understand correctly, the kidney stones will be taken care by a physician like you and the urinary stones (calculus) will be fixed by a urologist… right? mmm… as a patient, those two problems should be taken care by the same doctor, from my point of view. Of course gallstones are for you, clearly.

      Delete
  7. By the way, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for Japanese-made masks increased, and Sharp quickly jumped into manufacturing and selling them. Many people wondered, "Why is an electronics manufacturer like Sharp making masks?" Even at our clinic, we had some masks from suspicious (??) China or Middle Eastern sources, so I remember craving for products from reputable manufacturers. Oh, I just remembered that your senior won the lottery for those Sharp masks and wrote about it in an article! (lol) He also mentioned how difficult it was to access Sharp's website. JAL seems to have learned nothing from other companies' failures, but "see others' mistakes and correct our own" is... a phrase that hits close to home for me who cannot correct my own mistakes. (lol)

    If United did not lay off many corporate staff, does that mean it is a company that is strict with its passengers but kind to its staff? I commend you for continuing to fly from airport terminals to aircraft despite the COVID-19 infections being widespread. I hope United treats its loyal customers like you as kindly as its staff. But you still praise United as "the airline that treats me with the best hospitality," so it seems you have sold your soul to them. (LOL)

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    1. Yamada Denki sensei,

      In terms of the face mask mandatory, the toughest one I encountered was wearing mask in sauna. That was a real torture! And vast majority of “made in China” masks were broken – the adhered ear-loops are easily peeled off. So I bought more expensive masks – looks and feels exactly the same as China made, but it has an embossed letter which reads “Made in the USA.” This mask, no significant look and feel from Chinese ones, is super sturdy. It is disposable face mask but I feel it lasts forever… (I change it everyday, no worries)
      So made by Sharp must be the same as Made in the USA or even better, I guess. I tried to purchase Sharp’s ones but too much burden for get ‘em. I buy everything from Amazon these days, so I seek the best masks on their marketplaces.

      I think JAL didn’t see others’ stone well… Did their website back to up and running now?
      One of the biggest reasons why JAL is not my favor is… because Ms. F, who was the senior chief parser and became in charge of lead of education for new attendants. She was the girlfriend of my best friend (who is also T-Gakuen). When I saw her, she was at AS to chief parser but… I didn’t like her logics such as; attendants’ salary is very high because they are betting their life in the airborne, or anything she explained was self-centered hence I could easily imagine why that air carrier went bankruptcy.
      Hope the newbie who learned know-how’s from Ms. F wouldn’t follow her. Ms. Oya-san of ANA who was a chief parser on SFO-NRT flights and I used to saw her often, she is the best attendant and no wonder she was nominated for the lead of educating new hire. Congrats ANA and shame on you, JAL. (lol)

      Before the merger with Continental, United has “Of the union, by the union, for the union” motto. This means, employees are the kings, not passengers… However, after the merger, the corporation strategies are based on Continental, only the United’s name is remaining.
      As I suggested on the article “Fly the friendly skies®,” I treat United Airless is my sex friend, I can’t intercourse her though.

      Delete
  8. The event where BMW offered a blimp ride over Hiroshima was a wonderful experience. Although the hot-air balloon ride you experienced in Austria must have been enjoyable, as someone who has a fear of heights, even if it was free, I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it very much.

    You frequently visit Istanbul not only to accumulate miles but also because they are friendly towards Japanese people. When I completely retire in 3 years, if I ever go overseas, I definitely want to go to Hawaii, which I love, and also to Taiwan, which is known for being friendly towards Japan.

    It's interesting to learn that "Administration" is a positive word and "Regime" is a negative word in American English. I imagine the former refers to "the 行政 of a well-governed country" and the latter to "the 政権 of a suspicious or dictatorial country".

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    1. Yamada Denki sensei,

      Ah, sensei, I totally forgot about your acrophobia… sorry. But it was fortunate you are not homophobia. (lol)

      Because United doesn’t fly over Istanbul anymore, that city is not a good choice for accumulating lifetime miles. Therefore, I didn’t fly over there so often but did for Singapore. Now the restrictions of the flight accumulation is over, I fly by Turkish Airlines, SWISS, ANA or other Star Alliance carriers mostly using by United miles or purchasing ticket thru United.

      I visited Oahu three times, but a bit disappointed because there are so many Japanese residents and tourists, people recognizes me as Japanese… that’s not an incorrect recognition, but I feel somehow I was injured if some Hawaiian talked to me in Japanese, not in English.
      When I was in photographic institute, I stayed Taiwan for 4 weeks as an assistant photographer for recording their national treasures in National Palace Museum. I loved Taiwan but I gained my weight by eating five times a day… so the place would be dangerous now under my health conditions. (lol)

      Sensei… as you learned biology well and deep, you should remember the difference of 腐敗 and 発酵.
      First time I learned this was in Kisarazu High school. Professor of biology described 腐敗 is going rotten which makes useless for human, but 発酵 is fermentation which give us something useful. When I learned this, I souted at professor that politics should not go 腐敗 but 発酵. Then professor started laughing a lot and said “Anyone? Bring a Zabuton for Mr. obaKoba!!” – Ah, I had to consider joining to Yoshimoto…

      Delete
  9. 【ラーメン定食】So sorry I gotta go. S-zopiclone is hitting me severely...

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  10. I read Tom's tips for frequent fliers online. They include:
    1. Have a monogamous relationship with just one airline (otherwise, he can't accumulate this many miles!)
    2. When flying long-haul, don't adjust your watch to local time; instead, take a three-hour nap (wouldn't that affect his health with such a short sleep?)
    3. Fly in the best cabin you can (well, who wouldn't want to be comfortable when flying for such a long time), and if possible get someone else to pay for it (that's just laughable!).
    So, I was wondering if, aside from the short in-flight nap time, your strategy is similar to that of Tom's or even other top frequent flyers?

    As for your concern about natural radioactive electromagnetic waves, if it's true that flying from Tokyo to New York would result in the same amount of radiation exposure as a whole-body CT scan, that's definitely a bit scary. When I was a medical resident, I specialized more in the pancreas and bile ducts than in the digestive tract, and once I was exposed to radiation repeatedly for several hours during endoscopic examinations and treatments such as ERCP. After completing several examinations and treatments, I became quite "radiation sick," with moderate alcohol-like fatigue and mild nausea. My exposure at that time was quite high, and my superiors and colleagues even pitied me, saying things like "you're probably going to end up with azoospermia." Fortunately, I was able to have children...

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    1. Yamada Denki sensei,

      Tom’s tips… I didn’t know he has such kinda webpages.
      1. I can’t respect the word ‘monogamy.’ モノガミー… 私の苦手な言葉です。オシドリ夫婦? In the real world, mandarin ducks change their partners Every Season. (lol)
      2. Mr. Stucker’s suggestion of the adjustment of biological clock would be for flight attendants. I adjust my bio-clock with using s-zopiclone and sunshine. These work quite well for me.
      3. Of course I am trying to get the best seat in the best cabin if I can. But FINANCE is a keyword as always, so I am betting the barely few chances by using PlusPoints…

      Natural radioactive became my concern since I received lymphoma on my head. Because I was bald already, I could easily detect the tumor but if I have fluffy hairs like you, the result maybe more considerable. But that tumor can be caused by the natural radiations during I was in the airborne… no one can give me the right answer. And the radiation therapy to cure it, I received 30 gray of beta line (electrons accelerated by LINAC) that amount can be converted 300 millisievert – about third of LD100 (1Sv). Scary.
      So you were specialized in the pancreas and bile ducts? That’s why you could give me the right answers when my father was leaving… by the cancer of liver and bile ducts.
      And yes, your reproduction number (Rt) is 1.0 which is great. We are zero, nada, nothing… artificial radiation might be safer because the wavelength is more coherent than natural ones.

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  11. Wow, if you achieve 4 million miles, you're guaranteed a job as a gas station attendant for life! (lol) Of course, I understand that you have to negotiate with your husband, but as a reader, I hope you continue to accumulate miles step by step and somehow reach that goal within the rest of your lifetime. When that happens, not only will United Airlines provide you with commemorative items, but I promise to visit the gas station where you'll be employed on behalf of the readers and offer you much better gifts than what United Airlines would give you (lol).

    But let's move on from jokes and talk about something more serious in medicine. It's best to have a urologist treat urinary stones, but it depends on the case. If the treatment plan involves pain relief and observation, we internists can handle it. However, if there's a need to consider a lithotripsy, such as a shock wave, for the urinary stones, the case will be transferred to a urologist. The same goes for kidney stones. To put it simply, if a benign disease appears in the kidney-ureter-bladder-urethra tract and it can be managed conservatively, then an internist will manage it. If it's a malignant disease or if it can't be managed conservatively, even if it's a benign disease, then a urologist will take over. Either way, BMW remains a preferred brand among physicians in both specialties (it ended up as jokes again…).

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    1. Yamada Denki sensei,

      Talking about the perks and benefits by MileagPlus, if I join the attendant or any jobs at United, I may loose my MP status… so I can’t work at United even the workers’ union is quite strong! (lol) And if I achieve 4 million miles to be a lifetime GS, my largest concerns is – how much ‘lifetime’ left for me? (lol)
      I actually saw the machine for lithotripsy in Tokai University Hospital. It looked like 五右衛門風呂 for me though… but the most recent ones maybe improved a lot, I guess.

      The urologist-san is allowed to drive kidney grill because it’s related to urine side. For you, why don’t you decorate Kurobuta-san’s edge of kidney grill with fiberscope – twisting like infinite loop? It would be cute!

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  12. Did I just hear the words "Ramen Teishoku" from somewhere? Maybe it's just my mishearing, so let's continue with the comments (lol).

    Wearing a mask in a sauna? That's not just torture, but it could also cause hypoxemia and make you feel like you're about to die. For me, the most painful thing is wearing an N95 mask. Just talking with it on makes it hard to breathe, and it causes pain not only in my ears but also in my lower jaw and earlobes. If the pandemic were to resurge and we had to wear N95 masks and full-body protective suits in the scorching heat... I have experienced this kind of hell repeatedly over the past three years, so I sincerely hope that we can put an end to this soon.

    Oh, did I hear the words "Ramen Teishoku" again? It must be my mishearing. Anyway, let's end it here for today. Your return to Japan is approaching soon. Please rest well (lol).

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    1. Yamada Denki sensei,

      No, I said ‘lamentation.’ I’m sorry I can’t pronounce Japanese well these days…

      That mask mandatory in the sauna was unbelievable and uncomfortable at all, so I almost keep myself soaking in Jacuzzi or swimming pool. Otherwise, just relaxing and having fun.
      Before Covid, my studio has N95 masks by 3M already – those are for protecting from the fumes of soldering and flux. So I tried to use it during my shopping, and took it off within several minutes.

      Again, I said ‘lamentation’ but no big difference to ラーメン定食…

      From tomorrow, I will be an hour close to you. The daylight saving is starting soon.
      Oh but I’ll be in the same time zone next week. (lol) …but probably no Internet connection.

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